This year, card sales in major domestic sectors decreased by 4% compared to last year, and analysis shows that consumption in the education sector fell even more due to the low birth rate. BC Card announced on the 27th that card sales in the country decreased by 4% from last year from January to November.
By sector, sales in pets and culture (-9.2%) saw the largest decline, followed by leisure (-7.0%), food and beverage (-6.6%), education (-5.6%), transportation (-4.7%), healthcare (-4.4%), and shopping (-0.7%). The segment with the largest decrease in proportion of total sales was education (-0.8 percentage points). Within the education sector, expenditures on daycare centers, which accounted for 50.5% of the total, fell by 14.5% compared to the same period last year.
Learning materials (-7.5%) and kindergartens (-5.6%) also saw significant declines. However, expenditures related to private education, such as foreign language academies (11.9%), arts and physical education academies (6.9%), and cram schools (6.5%), continued to show an upward trend. When analyzing specific sectors within major fields, sales in online shopping (4.3%) and transportation (2.3%) increased compared to last year.
A BC Card representative noted, "Education-related expenditures, which households generally do not cut back on, have decreased significantly. The collapse of the total fertility rate, with an average of 1 child, appears to have greatly impacted the decline in daycare expenditures."